Spiced Lime Pickle/Lemon Pickle without Oil

Spiced Lime

I have my Mom’s cookbook, rather the cookbook that my Father had presented my Mom. It was his way of telling her that he liked food to be cooked in different ways not just the regular Karnataka Style.

 The cookbook had a cover when I flicked it, yes my sister does not know about the book and my brother was too small and of course my bhabhi, she has no clue!!! :D

This was in the pickle section, I realised that Amma used to make this delicious pickle and I do not know if she read this in the book or it’s a traditional recipe! I have made this pickle too often to read the recipe.

If you are like me left with pieces of lime, ginger or ginger then add them in a clean bottle. Sprinkle salt in the bottle on a regular basis. You will have delicious pickle ready.

This is my lemony entry for Blogging Marathon #46.

Spiced Lime

Spiced Lime Pickle/Lemon Pickle without Oil

Ingredients:

• 24 lime
• ½ kg green chillies
• ½ kg ginger
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 3 tblspn salt, heaped
• A big dry bowl
• Clean and dry glass bottle

Method:

• Wash and dry the lime.
• Similarly wash and dry the ginger pieces.
• Cut the lime in 8 pieces and drop them in the dry bowl.
• Peel and cut the ginger in small pieces add them in the same bowl as the lime.
• Cut the green chillies in small pieces add them in the same bowl as the lime.
• Mix 2 tblspn salt and turmeric in the bowl and mix well.
• Sprinkle salt in the jar.
• Put the jar in sun everyday with a clean muslin cloth tied on top. Do this for 6-7 days. In case you don’t have sunshine then you will need t 15 days for the pickle to get ready.
• Stir the lime daily by shaking the jar.

Notes:

• My Mother-in-Law added slices of karela/bitter gourd too. It was tasty and not bitter.

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Guasacaca - Venezuelan Avocado Salsa

Guasacaca - Venezuelan Avocado Salsa

In Venezuela the cuisine you will find influences especially from Italy, Spain and France. If that is not enough you will find indigenous as well as African influence.

Being a large and diverse country, each region in Venezuela has its own distinctive regional cooking.

On the coast enjoy fish, shellfish, crayfish, and fish soups as well as fish stews.  Coconut is also part of some dishes. In the Andean region the food is quite different. Here the "arepa" is not made of cornmeal but wheat. Cured meats and sausages are a delicacy and are sold in many villages.

 In the Amazon region besides yucca, corn, beans and bananas you can also enjoy turtles, tapirs, monkeys birds and deep fried ants. Squeamish you could also live on Casabe, bread made out of yucca.

When in the market, for my weekly Sunday marketing I started looking at avocados hubby was all too happy! He was expecting a shake. When I came home I immediately started attending to it (normally it’s lying around, he gets irritated and attends to it) was he thrilled!!!

Then he saw me mixing it up for a salad he just walked away….poor man!!!

At lunch (he came late) he had heard me admonishing the girls “keep some for Papa” he got curious and Apeksha served him a miniscule portion just to harass him, “taste it Papa. You may not like it” was what she told him!!

He came back not just for seconds but for fourths also. The entire bowl was over in one sitting. But the best part was FIL too liked it!!

There are some substitutions here; I replaced seeded jalapeno peppers with chillies and hot pepper sauce with chilli sauce, white wine vinegar with red wine vinegar.

Guasacaca - Venezuelan Avocado Salsa

Guasacaca - Venezuelan Avocado Salsa

Recipe Source:Food.com

Yield: 6 cups

Ingredients:

• 2 cups onions, finely chopped 
• ¾ cup red capsicum, finely chopped  
• 3 tblspn green chillies, finely chopped
• 3 tblspn extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tblspn red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp US mustard
• ¾ tsp salt
• ¼   tsp black pepper, fresh ground
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 ½ cups avocado, chopped and peeled 
• 1 ½ cups tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tblspn dhania/ coriander leaves, chopped 
• ¼ tsp red chilli sauce

Method:

• Mix the onions, red capsicum, green chillies, olive oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic in a large bowl.
• Toss mixture gently.
• Cover and refrigerate 3 hours.
• Stir in avocado and tomatoes and red chilli sauce just before serving.

 

Guasacaca - Venezuelan Avocado Salsa

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Mexican Rice

Mexican Rice

I hope you have enjoyed your trip around the world with us! Wondering what I am talking about? Okay we at blogging marathon are off” Around the World in 30 Days”! Foodies’ hai bhai kya? Food par he bolenge! 

So let’s stop today at M Mexico! Why it’s like Indian food! My daughters refuse to believe that I have cooked international food today! The younger one checked it out to see if there is something called Mexican Rice!

Shhh!

 I do not know what to say? Okay I do cook up names, fancy names but them not believing me when I am so earnestly telling them…! Pah! I do not know what these youngsters are these days... No respect only!!! (Ha all that ranting feels good!)

Anyway please believe me when I say that most Mexican food is like Indian food so that is the reason it’s popular in India.  I have a big list and recipes shared with me by my friend Vidya that I want to try in near future… so look out for some more delicious food here.

Right now  before you enjoy the Mexican rice I have dished out here some cuisine history, sorry you can skip it if you want and go directly to the recipe and I am quoting what I read in Wikipedia so,  

“Mexican cuisine is primarily a fusion of indigenous Mesoamerican cooking with European, especially Spanish, elements added after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century. The basic staples remain native foods such as corn, beans and chili peppers, but the Europeans introduced a large number of other foods, the most important of which were meat from domesticated animals (beef, pork, chicken, goat and sheep), dairy products (especially cheese) and various herbs and lots of spices.

While, the Spanish initially tried to impose their own diet on the country, this was not possible and eventually the foods and cooking techniques began to be mixed, especially in colonial era convents. Over the centuries, this resulted in various regional cuisines, based on local conditions such as those in Oaxaca, Veracruz and the Yucatán Peninsula. Mexican cuisine is closely tied to the culture, social structure and popular traditions of the country. The most important example of this connection is the use of mole for special occasions and holidays, particularly in the South and Center regions of the country.”

” Mexican cuisine is as complex as any of the great cuisines in the world, such as those of  India,  China,  France,  Italy and Turkey It is created mostly with ingredients native to Mexico  as well as those brought over by the Spanish conquistadors, with some new influences since then In addition to staples such as corn and chilli peppers, native ingredients include  tomatoes,  squashes,  avocados,  cocoa and vanilla as well as ingredients not generally used in other cuisines such as edible flowers, vegetables such as  huauzontle  and papaloquelite or small criollo avocados, whose skin is edible. European contributions include pork, chicken, beef, cheese, herbs and spices and some fruits. Tropical fruits such as guava, prickly pear, sapote, mangoes, bananas, pineapple and cherimoya (custard apple) are popular, especially in the centre and south of the country. It has been debated how much Mexican food is still indigenous and how much is European. However, the basis of the diet is still corn and beans with chilli pepper as a seasoning as they are complementary foods.

Mexican Rice

Mexican Rice 

Recipe Source: Vidya 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice
• 3 cups water+8 cups
• 6 tblspn oil
• 1 tblspn red sauce( recipe coming soon)
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• ½ tsp ginger paste
• ¼ cup rajma, soaked and boiled
• 1/3 cup corn, boiled
• 2 tsp chopped green chillies
• ¼ tsp dhania/ coriander seed powder
• ½ cup capsicum, sliced
• 1/3 cup onions sliced and separated
• ½ cup cabbage, sliced fine
• ½ tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp pepper powder, freshly ground
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 tsp jalapeño water (I substituted with vinegar)
• 1 tsp dhania/ coriander leaves

Mexican Rice

Method:

• Wash and soak the rice in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes.
• Strain and discard the water.
• Boil the 8 cups add 2 tblspn oil add the rice. Cook uncovered till the rice is done.
• Once the rice is cooked strain the rice in a colander.
• Cool the rice for 1 hour. Then to cooked rice apply oil, salt and 1 tblspn red sauce.
• In a kadhai/wok heat 2 tblspn oil add the garlic, ginger pastes. Stir.
• Add boiled rajma, boiled corn, green chillies, and coriander seed powder. Stir fry for 2 minutes.
• Add the capsicum, onions, cabbage and stir.  The ingredients should not cook fully.
• To this add the prepared rice, oregano, pepper powder, butter. Stir fry for 4-5 minutes.
• Add the jalapeño water, if using else add the vinegar and coriander.
•  Serve hot.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice with Vegetables)

Nasi Goreng

Today we in our “Trip around the World in 30 Days” we stop at Indonesia for the alphabet I.

What can represent Indonesia better than Nasi Goreng?

Nasi Goreng is often described as Indonesia's twist on fried rice.

According to Wikipedia   Nasi Goreng has been called the national dish of Indonesia though there are many other contenders for the title.

The beginnings of Nasi Goreng are simple---- avoid wasting rice, just like fried rice.  The name suggests Nasi Goreng is literally meaning "fried rice" in Indonesian and Malay. In the pre refrigeration times frying the rice could prevent the propagation of dangerous microbes.

Jowari Muddi

My father used to have a lot of touring duties. Every time he went on tour the rest of us i.e. my mom, sister, brother and I used to insist of one dinner of "Muddi"!

Amma used to make "Muddi" generally out of" Jowar" flour as Jowar was something we consumed on a regular basis. You must have heard of Ragi Muddi  this is my mom's innovation out what she had and her wish that we eat healthy but something easy to make.

So the other day I decided to make it for breakfast. Since I was sure hubby dear would not eat I made only a little for my FIL and me.

My S-I-S asked me if I made it like "Ambil" which is with buttermilk. This never did occur to me I made it like "Pithla/Zunka".

May be next time……….

Cucumber Rolls~ A Blog Hop#18

My brother and SIL had come down with his bundle of joy for three days.

I was to make supari with my father’s help and show Pooja, my SIL, some simple cakes. But the supari is on my kitchen shelf and the cakes are just not made.  I do not know where the days flew! One 7 month old baby Ayan and he had all of us dancing!

Before they left Pooja made us a delicious pancake and ice cream dessert  will share the recipe soon. They left for the US yesterday but it feels like ages that they have gone and the house feels empty without Ayan. May be next time I will do better.

Today I have some more relatives though there is no baby involved here I will be busy   to add to my woes the computer is acting up and I am not getting my daily fix of visiting my friends. Will do so after they leave hopefully for by then the Rain God will be visiting us........ And life continues.

But for today’s Blog Hop Radhika the brain behind it has paired me with Jayanti of Sizzling Veggies. In case you have not been there you are missing a treat. The pictures are a visual treat and the recipes are mind blowing. I had a hard time trying to choose what I wanted. Had I made something when Pooja was here then it would have definitely been Almond Cherry brownies but that was not to be.

 I had to go to the internet cafe to get my recipe and the first thing I saw was these awesome cucumber rolls.  I had to make them.

Herbed Garlic Pull Apart

Baking is something I enjoy but baking bread is something that I do not dare try at all.

For I have failed repeatedly!!

 But when I saw this herbed Spicy Garlic Pull Apart baked by Champa I fell in love with it. And baked it!! Four times now and not once have I had a problem.

Do try it out and bask in the praises heaped on you by all who come in its ambit.

Thanks Champa you are great.

There is no change in what I have done and what Champa has done except the garlic powder is replaced with crushed garlic and I have added onion to the paste as my jar cannot handle smaller quantities.

Tinda Stuffed with Paneer and Mint~ Dedicated to Mom

 I decided to make tinda and started to make Tinda Do piyaza that I had seen here.

However as I started long lost memories of how we, that is we siblings, hated this vegetable as kids swamped me. We always fought with my mother when we saw this vegetable. But in the sweltering heat of Nagpur and Akola where we spent our childhood in the summer very few vegetables were available. One was Gola Bhaji and other dhemsa or tinda. Poor mom had nothing to make, she must have been so frustrated…

MASALE BHATH

Cravings that were what my second pregnancy was dotted with!!

I wanted to eat the strangest possible things   “adki” i.e. betel nut powder that my Papa makes (mind you I could barely stand the stuff before and used to wonder how my siblings could stuff themselves with it) to masala bhath I wanted it all.

I still remember stuffing myself with this delicious bhath at a party and then because my friend insisted drinking a lot of buttermilk, just to prevent heartburn as she put it.  Wow that was bliss!!

The effects of these cravings can be seen even now, for my younger one loved this rice preparation while the older one said it was strange, yes strange! Her choice of words left me feeling that I should make this rice more often.

Usali the Goan Way

I have been living in Goa for many years but still one article that was printed in the Times of India was an eye-opener.

The author of the article was Melinda Pereira Kamat and she wrote about The Perfect Usali, in case you are interested it is featured in the Times of India, Goa edition on Tuesday, July 13, 2010.  I was supposed to scan and post it here but... hope will do so in near future. 

Till I read this article my view about usal or usali was that it is made in Karnataka and Maharashtra/Gujarat and the method that I followed was about similar to what my mother and MIL made. That is it has garlic and onion for Kaku (my MIL) made it that way and it had coriander and coconut ground for Amma. So I had mixed both and made my usal.

Corn Bruchetta

I do not enjoy corn, the only way I really enjoy it is roasted, in fact I have just started eating it boiled or steamed so I thought of the girls and hubby dear when I saw Bruchetta was something that I first saw on Manjula’s Kitchen here. Here is more on this delicious Italian snack or appetizer.

I had bookmarked it then. In between the computer was reformatted many a times and I lost the bookmark.

Palak Pulao

How super excited I am for I am a part of BloggingMarathon #13  and today is Day#1

I have chosen my theme as Rice.

Cool, yes well it is, till you try to feed your kids everyday rice, which does not happen in my place, but wait it has to be kid friendly and needs to ready in 20 minutes flat. And I am bombarded with suggestions. So there are lovely inputs that I have.

 Let’s begin at the very beginning

 1.I had made this spinach and garlic onion stir fry as a stuffing for lasagne. It did not happen poor thing was lying in the fridge quite lonesome.

2. Then I don’t know why I made a big batch of rice.

 3. Thanks to Raksha's post that I read here and this is how the idea cascaded into this lovely dish.

And was it appreciated? Serve it with paneer Manchurian and be labelled as the “besttest Mamma”!  

So we here it is   Palak Pulao as our entry for the first day of blogging marathon.

Kandya- che-Appe

One recipe that had caught my eye long ago was on Priya’s Blog at Now Serving was Baked Pakoda.

And the wonder of wonders I followed her instructions the only place I deviated was( when I the kids got hungry and wanted immediate feeding ) I had to get out my appe patra also know  as gunpangala or paniyaram tava. 

They disappeared as fast as they appeared on the plate. Barely managed the pics.

Here is the original recipe.

Thus ends the story of baked pakaoda which turned into Kandya-che -Appe as my niece called them!!
Thanks Priya this one rocks!!

Sending this to Bookmarked Recipes by Aipi and Priya

Kalyani's Valentine Fest-Served with love

Sangeetha's Show me your Hits

Archana

Sabudana Thalippeth

I would first like to thank all of you my friends for the lovely messages, prayers and thought that you have sent when I was feeling depressed.

 I do realize that I am just a small pawn in God's master plan and he will give me strength in the form of you guys. 

From now on I will take care of my health and blogging also for both are food for my life. They uplift me. I realize I cannot function without the other.

Black and White Wednesday and Vada Pav~~ A Blog Hop #8

For Today's Blog Hop, a fantastic way to make new friends, which happens to be Radhika's brain child  I was paired with Rinku Naveen ,of Rinku’s Kitchen. Do visit her for delicious dishes especially recipes from Kerala. I have bookmarked quite a few from this wonderful Blog.

After Diwali and the sweets that we (read I) had eaten I wanted to make something savoury but something deep fried in continuation with the festive season.  Deep frying in my place is some kind of a rarity because being asthmatic I suffer a lot after frying.

 What better than Vada Pav. Filling and delicious street food made home and as kiddo said Indian Burger an explanation she gave her friend and exactly as Rinku has described.

Sutikai Kosambri or Kakdi chi Koshimbir

Today I have chosen to write about my daughter’s favourite salad known in Kannada as “Sutikai Kosambri” or in Marathi as “Kakdi chi Koshimbir”!

Packed with nutrients of cucumber, peanuts and/or coconut and curds it is one of the easiest and the tastiest salad to put together plus you can eat it with chapatti or rice.

Alsande Usal

I am thrilled my post Corn Dhokla has given me maximum hits of 1072 in one single day! This I thought was the end of the story but yesterday  I read   Umm Mymoonah post and   she has selected mine. My cup of joy is overflowing!!

Thanks dear !

  

 Now coming to today’s post…

Alsande or I believe they are called Cow Chick Peas are cooked regularly in Goa. In the month of May they are purchased in bulk, sunned and stored for consumption during the year.

The most common dish made out of these highly nutritious beans is Alsande che tonak. A beautiful blend of spices, coconut and beans tastes great with pao or une.

 But I am repeating myself. Why? Because I love this quintessential dish which makes its appearance in every Goan marriage or munj.

But today I have made this as a simple Usal. The ingredients are very few and the taste is normal everyday comfort food.

 I am sorry I did not think of clicking a picture of the alsande before boiling them or soaking them I have tried to click them after boiling but they were not easy to handle.

Ingredients:

1 cup alsande

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 green chilli

 A few springs of coriander

½ tsp red chilli powder (adjust as per taste)

½ tsp turmeric

1 tsp goda masala

A small ball of tamarind

A small piece of jaggery (optional)

For Tempering:

Oil

 Mustard

Method:

1.      Soak the alsande after washing them in sufficient water overnight.

2.    Soak the tamarind in water and extract thick juice.

3.        In the morning add a little salt and pressure cook for 3 whistles. Let the pressure come down by itself.

4.         In the meanwhile coarse grind the onion, coconut, garlic and the dry masala & coriander in the mixer.

5.        In a separate kadhai/wok heat oil. Splutter mustard.

6.      Add the ground masala and stir fry till the onion is translucent.

7.    Add the boiled alsande.

8.     Add the tamarind paste and jaggery if using. Adjust the seasonings & bring to a boil.

9.    Serve hot with Jowari roti or chapatti. I love it with plain white rice.

   

 Sending this to my legume love  affair 39   which is Susan's brain child

Archana